Abraham Caudel

Abraham Caudel, a Mexican-born house painter and handyman, fled to Mexico in 2003 while under DeKalb police investigation for allegedly raping his daughter for more than a year starting when she was 14.

In 2007, DeKalb police and FBI agents knew exactly where Caudel was living in Mexico.

Caudel's ex-wife is from a nearby part of Jalisco, and she traveled home in 2007 when her father became deathly ill. In a dramatic series of events, she learned Caudel's current address and confronted him in the red and white two-story house in a working class neighborhood of Guadalajara. She gave the exact address to authorities.

"I am afraid he will do the same thing with those children," his ex-wife told the Tribune.

But in spite of the information, Caudel remains at large. In a recent trip to Mexico, two Tribune reporters tracked down Caudel and interviewed him in front of the family-owned tannery where he now works. Caudel, who professed his innocence, said it was easy to escape Illinois, and added that he has made no effort to conceal his identity or hide from authorities because "they've never looked for me."

Caudel said he had fallen in love with a woman and started a new family with two young daughters.

Asked if he presented any danger to those girls, Caudel insisted that he was a superb dad: If there was a prize for best father, he said, "I would have won."

Caudel said his 4- and 6-year-olds are the reason he doesn't end his life on the run and return to face American justice.

"My children here are my concern. I can't leave them," he said. "What gives me strength to continue to live now is my new girls."